


The Aftermath of The Pit

by Girl Wonder (sophialoving)



Series: The Spaces Between [4]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work, Skyfront
Genre: Angst, Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 04:16:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13756110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophialoving/pseuds/Girl%20Wonder
Summary: After the events in The Pit, Aya struggles to shake the fear and anxiety caused by the illusions and Amthos is there to help soothe her.





	The Aftermath of The Pit

**Author's Note:**

> Amthos belongs to Andy, one of the players in our campaign.   
> This was not written with Andy but it is inspired by a roleplay moment in one of our sessions.

The first day of recovery started out exactly like the day before, with a morning full of training, but it was different. As much as she felt unsettled by the events of The Pit, it had earned her a new respect among the young orcs. Some of them even treated her like one of them, which she discovered got old pretty quickly. She had a lot more substance than what they had to offer. Throughout the training, she could feel different eyes on her, but the one constant pair watching her had been Lukk’s. She could hear the Warchief’s description of his son in her head as she forced herself to let out a slight smile to greet him at the end of the morning.

“I was wrong about you,” he muttered reluctantly to her when he finally reached her.

Aya willed herself to be smug, willed herself to slip back into the posturing that had come so easily when she first arrived in Gabalia, but instead, she just quietly nodded.

When Aya said nothing, Lukk added, “ **He** was wrong about you.”

“I know,” she finally spoke, a trace of the posturing smugness returning to her briefly before she said quietly, “Markus always saw himself better to distract from his shortcomings; I worked hard to overcome mine and was never satisfied, even now I’m still not satisfied. It might be hard for you to understand, but maybe those who tear other people down are doing it because they feel like shit about themselves.”

Lukk looked unsure, as though he was trying to figure out whether he ought to be insulted or not by the implication that he might not understand.

“For the record, I don’t care what you do, Lukk. Whether you stay friends with Markus or not is your choice,” she said with a bit of an edge to her voice after a moment of Lukk’s contemplative silence, “I just want you to stop being an asshole to me, that’s all I want. We can stay out of each other’s way until I leave.”

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” Before Aya could respond, Lukk left The Lines and there she was, left to her own devices.

_ “That was the easy part,”  _ she thought to herself as she found herself taking a walk, heading south towards The Pit.

South always meant home to her so when she found herself walking aimlessly, it had been the first direction that sprung to mind, so she went with it. Having to deal with a lot of the inner noise in her mind really caused her to wish Maverick was around but this was necessary for her journey so she had to stick it out.

Every step she took caused her thoughts to get louder as they replayed the moments of tension and frustration, the quiet whispers of insecurity as she struggled to gain control of the situation. The hallways had been challenging enough to figure out but what laid beyond them was an even tougher challenge than she could have anticipated.

It had been nice to confront a version of her mother rather than back down from the conflict like she did in the past. Being able to say the things she said about her mother’s standards and being unable to meet them felt good to her, despite merely talking to an illusion. She thought confronting her mother would be the end of it but she had been seriously mistaken.

It had taken her by surprise, first her friends disappearing, and then the choice presented in front of her. Save Camille, Confront Amthos or Protect the Light. 

The image of Camille struggling and her cries for help had broken Aya’s heart.

The manifestation of Amthos’ darkness had shaken her to the core. 

But The Wisp had been the call to action, the thing that had caused to start thinking of a way to deal with the situation in front of her. 

The noise had started to get louder, Camille’s cries intermingling with Amthos’ threatening voice, which had  caused a bit of a panic as she had been unable to hear herself think. It had been completely unfair to expect her to choose but Aya’s first instinct had been to try to deal with all three situations at once. 

When her initial tactic had failed to work, Aya remembered wondering if this was to test how committed she was to her Quest. She had decided to double down on the Wisp several times before she finally gave up.

Her outburst hadn’t bothered her in the heat of the moment but that breaking point had been the moment that stuck with her even once they had exited The Pit and had celebrated their completion of the Challenge. Maybe it had felt like she had nothing to lose, maybe it was the thought that maybe her friends had been taken away some place far away that had caused her to snap. She had yet to figure that out.

_ “This is bullshit! My mother may be disappointed in me and I may not be the daughter she wanted, but she would never make me choose between the older sister I never had, the love of my life and the light I’m meant to defend.” _

In the moment, the words had felt right. And they still mostly did, though she had her concerns about her choice of words for Amthos. It wasn’t that she hadn’t meant them when she said them, or that she wanted to take them back...but she felt uneasy about them, like maybe she had said the wrong thing. And when she realized that her friends had all witnessed the final part of the Challenge, she grew even more uneasy with the words. More than ever, she felt bare and exposed to everyone else and there was something scary about that. There was nothing left to hide…

The truth about it all was that while the last couple of ten days had been when the relationship had really found its footing, Aya had been drawn to Amthos for much longer than that. It had been a matter of a ten day from their first meeting to the moment her heart had been set on winning Amthos over. Her attraction had been a long standing thing and she struggled to remember a time she hadn’t been fighting her heart about it in some way, and struggling to hide what she had viewed as a weakness initially.

She walked to the edge of The Pit and looked down, searching for the sense of pride she was meant to be feeling at completing the challenges within it...she struggled to feel anything other than the fear and anxiety she faced as she struggled with the realisation that if she were faced with the same decision in a real way and not just with illusions, that she would have made the same one, she still would have chosen to protect the Wisp and sacrificed her personal relationships for the greater good. 

“Are you okay?” a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.

The voice behind her had not caused her to move but it did cause her to respond. “What do you think?” she shot back with an edge to her voice, causing the voices in her head to fade to a loud whisper in the background of her mind, “You saw what happened.”

Amthos carefully approached her as he spoke. “I want you to tell me,” he replied gently, “Please, Aya, talk to me about what happened down there. Don’t hold it all inside.” He gestured towards The Pit as he entered Aya’s peripheral vision.

Without saying a word, Aya turned her head slightly to watch Amthos sit at the edge of The Pit, right next to her, his hand reaching for hers and giving it a slight tug, inviting her to sit. 

“Come sit with me,” he added, maintaining his gentle tone, “We don't have to talk but I feel like it would help you.”

Aya quietly acquiesced, sitting next to Amthos, her hand still intertwined with his. 

After giving her a kiss on the top of her head, Amthos told her, “I know what you went through down there was scary, but you know I got your back, right?”

Aya knew this to be true; it had been the one thing Amthos always told her that she could consistently trust. 

“What happened down there warped and distorted my fear and anxiety, Amthos,” she admitted quietly, “And it pitted my sense of duty against Camille and against you.”

“That must have been hard for you,” Amthos murmured into her hair, recalling how difficult it had been for him to simply stand by and watch.

Aya thought back to the moment she realized she couldn’t handle all three illusions at once. It wasn’t her sisterhood with Camille that had been the first thing that came to mind, and neither was her blossoming relationship with Amthos, but her sense of duty and her promise to Alben to reach out to the other Dai’Si. 

“I knew in my heart I was making the right decision,” Aya said quietly, not daring to look at Amthos but instead opting to look straight out into The Pit, “I knew that the greater good had to be more important than my personal relationships…that Wisp had to be protected at all costs.”

“I understand, more than you realize,” Amthos pointed out, “I used to be in the military, remember?”

“Oh yeah,” Aya let out a quiet whisper, becoming lost in her thoughts.

“You made a difficult decision and you stood by it,” Amthos told her as she turned her head to face him, “I want you to know how proud I am of you.”

“Thanks.” With that, Aya turned her head back towards The Pit before speaking again, her voice barely audible this time. “What I saw down there, what scared me the most...that’s not really you, is it?”

What Aya needed was reassurance that was she saw was rooted in nothing more than irrational fear, that everything she loved about Amthos was strong enough to fight whatever darkness he had to fight. 

Thinking back to the events of The Pit he witnessed, Amthos looked to Aya and gently held a hand up to her cheek, causing her to turn her head to look at him again.

“Aya...you don’t have to be afraid of me. I promise you, I am still every bit the man you spent all this time getting to know,” he whispered soothingly to her.

Instinctively, Aya mirrored him and reached up to put her own hand on his cheek as she told him, “I know, I just need to know you’ll fight the darkness...I don’t want to lose yourself in all of this retribution business. I was just starting to really  **see** you.”

Leaning in to press his forehead against hers, he assured her, “I’ll fight it for you, Aya. For the first time in my life, I have a reason to fight.”

Aya nodded slightly before dropping her hand and pulling her head away, her eyes still fixed on him.

“You’re the light in my life, Aya, and my life is better for it,” Amthos went on, “You’re the reason I fight now and I know that no matter what happens when we go back to Tempest, you’ll be there supporting me while I deal with everything.”

Aya did not say a word as she took Amthos’ words in.

“You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for, Aya,” he spoke quietly, “I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have at my side.”

Aya sighed as she watched Amthos stand from his sitting position.

“I’m going to go but if you need me, just come to me in the tent,” he told her, looking down at her from his standing position.

She simply nodded, turning her head away.

“Don’t spend all your time alone,” he added, “Don’t forget that we’re all here for you.”

“Thanks.”

Watching Amthos walk away, Aya whispered to his retreating back, “I love you.” She waited until he was out of sight before she let the tears she had been holding back flow freely. 


End file.
